Page 22 - My FlipBook

dent. Within two weeks after that the young lady died
suddenly, simply from some little excitement. If I had given
her the anesthetic I might or I might not have sent her home
in a box, but I would have been in danger of doing just that
thing. Now this one case illustrates the importance of a
close, careful study of these conditions by dentists.
Now to go back again to the examination of the mouth'.
Your patient is seated in the chair and you proceed to the
examination of the mouth. The first thing for you to fix,
after having sufificient experience in looking over mouths to
be able to do so, is to determine upon some definite order of
procedure in making this examination. I would like for
someone to take the chair for a moment (demonstrating).
Now the chair is too short and it is necessary that we
lengthen it. There is a good deal of difference in the way
different persons will sit in the chair. Some will insist upon
sitting bolt upright—it isn't a bad position for a patient.
Others will slide out of the chair and get away from you al-
most in spite of anything you can do. Generally, at first, if it
is a stranger, I pay but little attention to that, but as I pro-
ceed I gradually correct it and aim to get the patient in a
comfortable position to himself and to myself.
The first thing to do in the examination of a mouth is to
wash your hands. Do not examine the teeth the first thing,
but first examine the gums ; look over the buccal mucous
membranes first. There are reasons for making that exami-
nation first. Conditions of the peridental membranes are
more important than caries of the teeth ; the condition of the
peridental membranes should be the first inquiry. You run
around with the eye and examine the buccal mucous mem-
branes and the gums, pulling the lips well away for the pur-
pose. Notice whether or not there is shortness of the gum
about any teeth, or whether or not there are fistulse or in-
flamed points, and if you notice a point that you suspect, pass
your finger over it. I would find a point of inflammation
with my finger by the touch where I would fail to see it with
the eye. Or if the peridental membrane is destroyed over a
portion of the root and yet the gum is standing up apparently
good, when I pass my finger along the gingivae there is a
peculiar sensation ; the alveolar process is gone, perhaps, and
I will detect that by touch through the tissue where I would

8